Iran’s “mysterious” Ababil missiles can get to Russia: what threat do they pose to Ukraine?
The White House said that Iran could once again provide military support to Russia and supply short-range ballistic missiles Fateh-110 and Ababil.
During his briefing on November 21, 2023, White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby said that Iran may be preparing to take “a step further” in its support of Russia and provide Russia with Fateh-110 and Ababil short-range ballistic missiles.
The second type of ballistic missile mentioned by Kirby is worth paying special attention to. On the one hand, it is true that during the Army-2023 forum, the Iranian delegation demonstrated the Ababil ballistic missile at the exposition of this event. At the time, some characteristics of this weapon were even disclosed: the length of the body was 3.7 meters, the launch weight was 240 kilograms, and the launch range was up to 86 kilometers.
At the same time, there are allegedly two modifications of this missile at once: the “conventional” Ababil modification, which uses an inertial guidance system (i.e., for coordinate-based firing), and the Ababil OP with an optoelectronic targeting system.
It was even argued that Ababil ballistic missiles should be launched from a containerized launcher with 8 cells.
But the nuance is that, apart from the presentation at Army 2023, there are no other publicly available references to Iran’s Ababil ballistic missile. And the only available image of this missile is a photograph of a model on display at a Russian propaganda forum.
If Russia does receive Iranian-made Ababil short-range ballistic missiles, it will be able to use these weapons to strike our troops at the front, and in return “free up” a certain number of S-300s, which are now used as “ersatz OTRK” to shell our frontline cities.
Ukraine has an extremely small number of air defense systems capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. Therefore, if the Rashists get Iranian Ababil, it will be a significant problem for our air defense.
